Herb Kelleher: the Yoda who democratised the skies

Herb Kelleher, the best CEO in America according to Fortune magazine, was the inventor of the original low-cost airline. He died this month aged 87. Jane Lewis reports.

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Some called him "the high priest of ha-ha"; to Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary, he was "the Grand Master Yoda of the low-fare airlines". But there's a case to be made that Herb Kelleher, who died this month aged 87, was "the best CEO in America", says Fortune. The founder of Southwest Airlines is credited with reinventing an industry: he was the capitalist who "democratised the skies", spawning dozens of imitators, says

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Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.

She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.

Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.

She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.